Allosaurus

Allosaurus fragilis

Pronounced:
Al - o - Saw - rus

Diet:
Carnivore
(Meat-Eater)

Name
Means:
"Different Lizard"

Length:
25 - 40 feet (7 - 12
m)

Height:
10 - 14 feet (3 -
4.5 m)

Weight:
1 - 5 tons(1,000 -
4,500 kilos)

Time:
Late Jurassic - 150
mya

Fossil remains for this Dinosaur have been found in Western
United States

One of the most
popular and well known
dinosaurs, Allosaurus
was the most ferocious
meat-eater of the
Jurassic. It was the
first of the really big
meat-eaters which had
huge heads filled with
lots of sharp teeth. It
could run very fast,
close to 40 mph, and had
very strong arms and
long, sharp, curved
claws on its hands. One
of its hand claws was
more than one foot long!

Allosaurus lived
among some of the
largest dinosaurs to
ever walk the earth and
it is likely that it
hunted some of smaller
members of these
families. Even the
smaller members would
have been huge, and this
required Allosaurus to
have great strength.

Allosaurus is the
namesake of the very
successful allosaurid
family of dinosaurs.
This family includes
what may be the very
largest carnivore, the
Giganotosaurus and
other creatures such as
the Acrocanthosaurus
and Carcharodontosaurus
Its more distant
relatives are the
raptors and tyrannosaurs
of the late Cretaceous.

Allosaurus had
relatively small teeth
for such a large
dinosaur, especially
when compared to later
big carnivores. It
probably had a weak bite
compared to its size,
but its mouth could open
very wide. Allosaurus
most likely used its
very heavily muscled
arms with its huge claws
as potent weapons in
bringing down and
holding its prey. It
also was close to having
true stereo vision - its
big eyes had some
forward vision that
would have allowed for a
degree of depth
perception.

There is a great deal
known about this
dinosaur's life style.
Footprint evidence
indicates it hunted in
groups and that it cared
for its young in large
nests. It inhabited
floodplains, meadows and
some forests.